Tim Murphy Quotes From Ivy Football Teleconference

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - Tim Murphy, the Thomas
Stephenson Family Head Coach for Harvard Football, recently took
part in the Ivy League's weekly teleconference. Below are his
quotes from the event.

Additionally, coach Murphy will give more insight into his
Crimson as he takes part in the weekly New England Football
Writers' Association Luncheon Wednesday afternoon at Harvard's
Dillon Field House.

The event - the nation's oldest weekly football media gathering,
now entering its 81st season - begins at noon and
features head coaches, players and administrators from around the
region from all levels of NCAA competition. For the first time,
this year's event will be streamed live via the web on
GoCrimson.com.

Fans can login to Harvard's Multimedia section of the website to
watch the streams. Recaps of the event will be posted in the
afternoon and will be sent to media and area schools as well. Local
fans can do even better as the event is open to the public for a
fee of $10 per person.

Each school's coach/administrator will speak briefly about his
team's last game, a preview up the upcoming games and an assessment
of his team's top players. Additionally, the weekly Gold Helmet
Award is given to the preceding week's top players. The award is
sponsored by the Gridiron Club of Greater Boston and the weekly
winners - one from Divisions I and one from Divisions II/III - are
presented with a plaque.

Harvard Head Coach Tim Murphy opening
statement:
First of all, we played a very fine team in Holy Cross... The
bottom line is - they made just a few more plays and made fewer
mistakes than we did. We have no excuses, we played hard, played
solid but have to be better than that against a Holy Cross team
that has a chance to win nine or ten games.

On preparing for a Friday game as opposed to a
Saturday:The obvious thing is that, instead of three practices, you
only get two... I think what offsets it is that our kids love
playing night games and love playing on Friday night. The
enthusiasm for the (night) game offsets any of the issues we have
as players or coaches.

On the Brown game being a "rivalry" game:
Every game with us is a "rivalry" game. I get this question every
week. Our big rival is obviously Yale and traditionally Princeton
as well. We've got a bull's-eye on our front and our back as
well... Whoever wants to call us a rival is fine with us.

On playing a big game early in the season and the keys
to get his team playing at a high level so fast:
One of (they keys), if you have a veteran quarterback , that
helps... the other is you somehow have to do a good job on the
turnover rations. We didn't have any takeaways last week against
Holy Cross. We keep it simple early and give our kids a chance to
be successful.

On Desmond Bryant, now with the Oakland Raiders and
telling him he had the talent to play at the next
level:
He's a kid we legitimately beat Duke for in recruiting, scholarship
for scholarship. He's from a working class family, a great family.
He was one of those kids who, physically, looked like an SEC kid.
His work ethic really paid off to the point where he is still
dramatically improving today. He is going to be one of those
300-ponds inside guys in the NFL. We are very proud of what he has
accomplished.

On advantages for an NFL-caliber player attending an Ivy
League school:
There are several things, I think: Number one, he's going to
have some potential left over. What I mean by that is that, at
another school, he might not have gotten on the field as quickly or
as consistently. At some schools its 80 percent football whereas
here the kids are not given any special favors and are
representative of the student body.

If you have the ability to play at the next level, you come away
very mature (from Harvard) , well-prepared socially, intellectually
and a lot of the guys who have gone on to the NFL from here have
felt very well prepared in a lot of different ways

On running a balanced attack with 37 running and passing
plays last week; and on playing freshman running back Treavor
Scales in a close game early in the season:
I won't say that Treavor has been a surprise because we thought he
was a very fine, skilled athlete. He is a step faster than we
thought he was, he has absorbed the information faster. He has had
an outstanding preseason and can come in right now. When you have a
freshman like that, you have to play him. He is very mature.

On the Brown game plan:
They are an outstanding team. We've been fortunate to have a good
record against Brown. Part of it is, they are such a physical and
well-coached team. They play us hard. The added challenge (this
year) is how good they are defensively. They have a lot of guys
back. We won't see a better defensive front that what Brown has
this year. They have probably two of the three best linemen in the
league and we are going to be tested right from the get-go.